FFVII:ACC story
by Scarlet Fair
Summary: Zack and Aerith are dead, Cloud is greiving and Scarlet is the only one who can help Cloud and the kids with the Geostigma. Advent Children, AdventCchildren Complete and Crisis Core combined. Enjoy reading R&R please. OC Scarlet xCloud in later chapters
1. Chapter 1 Past Issues

It's been some time now since I lost my brother Zack and left to live a normal life. Yet, even living a normal life has its complications. I understand he died back then, but it's as if he's still watching over me, like an angel. Well that's what he would call it. I even remember his last words to me:

'I'll be back, I promise.' That was the last time I ever saw him, living anyway. Ever since then, I've hated the word 'promise', and now everyone I know avoids saying that word around me.

Now, I'm walking amongst the waste of Midgar; or what's left of it anyway. I often come down here to think and let out my anger. Where I live can get very stressful, as the so-called 'man of the house' is never home, leaving me to take care of any pests that come into the bar and cause trouble. You could say that I'm a kind of tomboy, as I never wear skirts or dresses, at least since Zack died, and I kick the guy's asses if they start making trouble. I guess it's just my past life taking over, as I used to fight all the time, and now a massive change to this, like an old dog that can't chase his tail anymore. Typical really, besides, what do you expect from a former SOLDIER, 1st Class.

The people I'm living with now are well... like a family, but not a full family, if you know what I mean. See, there's me, the protective one. Tifa's the money earner and hard worker; Marlene, the one who always knows what to say. Barret, who we don't see much of, but he instantly shows his place when he's home. Finally, there's the one who never comes home and spends his days sulking; none other than Cloud. Not making him seem like an enemy of mine, we're actually close friends. Well we were. It just annoys me how he is spending his life since Zack and Aerith's deaths, which happened two years ago. I know what he's feeling as I lost my older brother, but I'm not spending my days moping around, that's not what he would have wanted for me to do.

To tell the truth, Cloud and I... we go way back. See it was back when I was in SOLDIER; Cloud was still and infantryman, but it didn't stop us from being friends. When Zack and I first met Cloud, it was more like an accident, as we crashed in a Shinra helicopter and ended up walking the rest of the way through snowing mountains and such to get to our destination. This was when we met Cloud for the first time, as he was able to keep up with us, better than Tseng and the other infantryman. He then told us that he was a 'country-man too'. Ever since then Cloud has been like a second brother to me as I've protected him the whole way. Yet, now he is really pushing my patience with his complete disinterested attitude for everything.


	2. Chapter 2 The boy called Denzel

I'm walking through Midgar ruins and the Slums, approaching a very familiar place that I used to visit quiet often, the Slums church. Surprisingly, they remained standing after Meteor struck and tore Midgar apart. I was hitting things with the metal rod that I found down there, to try and decrease my anger level. Yet again, Cloud is not talking to anyone and I had to get out of the house. It's hard to explain, but this place relaxes me.

I walked around the corner of some rubble and saw in plain sight the church, standing the same way that it always had, apart from some of the side being damaged from the collapse of Midgar two years ago. Everything was just the way that it was yesterday, apart from one minor detail. The one thing in the world I wished not to see, well here anyway, the Fenrir, otherwise known as Cloud's bike was parked outside. I walked over to the bike to make sure that it definitely belonged to whom I thought, and it did. The jet-black coat, with gold sections sat slung over the seat. I remembered when I fixed the bike for the first time that Cloud had it; you could say that I was Cloud's personal engineer.

I looked around and found no sight of Cloud, as per usual. I was about to walk away from the bike and towards the church, until I heard some strange noises. After listening, I found that the noise was someone in pain. Behind the bike, a boy had collapsed to the ground in pain; I ran to him.

'Hey, kid are you okay?' I asked in a worried voice. The boy didn't answer, but there was a sound of a familiar voice somewhere. A phone was on the ground not far from the boy; I answered it and found that Tifa was on the other end.

'Cloud if you're there, pick up!' Tifa's voice shouted from the phone in a worried voice.

'Tifa it's me Scarlet, what's going on? Who's this boy and where's Cloud?'

'I have no clue what you're talking about, but you have to help the boy, he sounds like he's in a lot of pain.'

'Sure I'll bring him back to the Seventh Heaven.' I said, and closed the phone up, putting it in my pocket. I walked back over to the boy and helped him get up; he lifted his hand away from his head and revealed it to have a black liquid, rather than a crimson substance. At that moment, I knew what was wrong with him and hurried to get him back to the Seventh Heaven, leaving the Slums and Cloud's bike where it was.

I was now in the same room as the boy I just rescued from the Slums, watching over him. I wanted to help him more, but I couldn't as he was fast asleep, and I didn't want to wake him up. I sat on the other bed thinking to myself about where I found the boy, why Cloud's bike was there and where Cloud was. Finally, I thought to myself that the boy had Geostigma and it must have been fresh as he was in so much pain when I found him. I was in mid thought when I heard the door open; I looked up to find a small girl, known as Marlene.

'Is he okay?' she asked quietly.

'He should be now, he just needs his rest.' I said, with a hint of sadness in my voice. She noticed that I was tired and worried by the worried look on my face.

'Don't you worry, I'll look after him. You deserve a long rest for what you've been through today.' She said sweetly. With that, I got off the bed, thanked Marlene for her kindness, and walked down to the bar for a drink and to talk with Tifa.

I got down stairs to the bar and sat down in front of Tifa. While she was drying some washed glasses, she spoke to me.

'What'll it be then?' She asked.

'Something strong would be nice.' I said, emotionless. With that, she got a reasonably strong drink for me while I sat in thought. Tifa placed the drink in front of me and looked at me in worry. At that moment an engine was heard outside getting louder by every second, I recognized it... too well. The engine suddenly cut off and all was silent. Shortly after, the door opened. I didn't dare turn around, for I knew then and there who it was without even looking. The engine, the silence, it could only mean one person... Cloud.  
Everything was quiet; all you could hear was the sound of footsteps walking towards the stairs. Tifa was the first to break the silence when she spoke to Cloud.

'Where've you been, it's been ages since you last came here.' She said in a normal tone. No answer came from the being that entered the bar and continued walking after listening to Tifa speak.

'Is that your answer?' I said coldly, still not looking at him. I knew if I did, I would lose control of my anger towards him, which he typically wasn't making any better.

'You think you can continue acting the way you are now, but that's not going to happen! Not with me around anyway.' I shouted with rage in my voice. I was now looking at him, but he wasn't looking at me to see the anger in my eyes.  
'Scarlet, calm down.' Tifa asked me gently. With that, I started to calm down as I didn't want to knock Cloud out, yet part of me was telling me to do so.

'Why was your bike in the Slums and who is the kid?' I queried. Again, there was no answer, as Cloud ignored me and walked up stairs. As he retreated, anger was raging inside me, boiling my blood. Before Tifa or I knew what was happening, I smashed my fist into the bar. At that moment, Tifa knew that she had to do something before things got worse around here.  
Tifa walked up stairs, following Cloud to his room and waited at the doorway. She looked at him worried and asked Cloud in a more decent tone than mine about what happened. When Tifa finished explaining what happened, Cloud looked surprised about hearing of this boy who phoned Tifa by using Cloud's phone.

I walked up quietly behind Tifa and stared at Cloud with anger in my eyes. I told him everything that I saw and what was wrong with the boy, with that Cloud seemed not as much surprised, but curious towards the situation. He walked past Tifa and me and made his way up the stairs toward the room that Marlene and the boy were in. I followed him up the stairs and stopped by the door, behind Cloud, who was staring at the boy.

'Ah, Cloud. You came home.' Marlene said with happiness in her voice. Cloud just walked away from where he was standing and walked towards the door, until I stopped him and grabbed him by the collar. He still avoided eye contact as I was telling him what happened and how pathetic it was how he was acting and handling what happened in that past. That said, I let go of his collar and Cloud continued to exit the building. I stood looking at that floor in shame of what I had just done. Marlene looked at the incident that just happened fearfully, as she had never seen me do that before.

I'm sorry.' I said with a hint of sadness in my voice. After saying that, I walked out of the room and walked into my room, slamming the door behind me.

I slid down the door and ended up on the floor with tears in my eyes, I realized what I had just done and regretted it the whole way. I had never gotten this angry before, and was scared of what was becoming of me. Even if I went to the Slums church, that wouldn't even calm me down. The only thing that could possibly help was my brother, but that wasn't going to happen was it, as he died two years ago.  
I moved away from the door and curled myself up on my bed, leaning against the wall; tears were now flowing down my cheeks. The door opened and Tifa walked in with a worried face, more than I had ever seen before. She saw me crying on my bed and tried to comfort me, to try to stop the tears; but it didn't work, they kept falling. I hugged her and she hugged me back in attempt to calm me down, and it surprisingly worked.

I looked over Tifa's shoulder and noticed a picture of Zack, Cloud, Tifa and me, taken when we were in Nibelheim two years ago on an assignment. We were all close friends then, but now it felt like we were being torn apart from one another. I separated from Tifa's embrace and thankfully stopped crying. Tifa was the only remaining friend that I known the longest and I wanted to keep it that way. I placed my hand on the dog tags that remained round my neck, which belonged to Zack and smiled; with this, Tifa smiled too. A knock was heard from the door and Marlene appeared behind it.

'Is everything okay?' She asked sweetly.

'Yeah. Hey why don't I take over for you and look after the boy, huh?' I suggested.

'Okay.' She said happily, and walked out of the room. Tifa shortly followed her and I walked up the stairs towards the spare room where the boy was sleeping.

It was starting to get dark; everyone was asleep now except me, as I was watching over the boy and looking at the photo from my room that I noticed earlier. I started seeing the past all over again, as if it only happened yesterday.

FLASHBACK

'Cloud, come on, you have to get in the photo too.' A female voice said.

'Yeah come on, and you can take off that helmet over wise we won't know who it is in the future.' Said a male voice.

'I want to go next to Cloud!' Said the female voice.

'Oh, someone fancies Cloud, huh?' Said another female voice.

'No I don't!' Argued the other female.

'It doesn't matter as long as we're all in the photo, right.' Said the male voice again.

'Hey don't kill me.' Said a younger voice.

'Oh, sorry Cloud.' Said the female. 'We're going to stay friends forever, I just know it.'

END FLASHBACK

I remembered those last words I'd said when that photo was taken, and looked at the dog tag, which had a lot of information about Zack engraved on it. I placed the photo on the unit next to the bed and watched over the boy, making sure that he was okay. I sat back on the other bed in the room and started feeling my eyelids begin to get heavy. Before I knew it, total darkness had kicked in and I was asleep.  
I opened my eyes and as they adjusted to the dark, I realized that someone was in front of me. But not just anyone, the boy that I found in the Slums, he was awake and okay. I was so happy to see him awake, I smiled at the sight, the boy asked me in a scared voice.

'Where am I, who are you and are you okay?'

'Yeah, I'm okay. And I found you in the Slums, so I helped you as you were in a lot of pain. You're safe here, don't worry.' I answered kindly. 'Say what's your name, I don't even know it yet.'

'Ah, my name's Denzel and who are you?' He asked timidly.

'My names Scarlet, Scarlet Fair. Nice to meet you.' I said welcomingly. I held out my hand to shake his and he took my hand timidly, but eventually we shook hands and I noticed that the boy was a little happier, which made me a bit happier.


End file.
